ABSTRACT
The city of Alexandria had indeed been shaken by 'grave disorders' on Sunday, 11 June 1882. The diplomatic and financial position of Egypt vis-a-vis the European powers in the 1870s and 1880s was the fundamental context for the events of 1882. On 15 May 1882, Britain and France sent warships to Egypt to make clear their readiness to intervene. The streets of Alexandria, formerly the pride of a regime that declared itself no longer in Africa, but rather a part of Europe, had been turned into a battleground. The diplomatic and financial position of Egypt vis-a-vis the European powers in the 1870s and 1880s was the fundamental context for the events of 1882. Europeans were a culturally alien body, and this at a time when many Muslims' consciousness of their own cultural identity, even in Alexandria, was increasing in strength.
